After winning the Female Entrepreneur of the Year Award 2025 this month, SD Wellness Founder and CEO, Stefanie Daniels, has shared her inspiring story with the Thames Gazette.
This award showcases Stefanie’s hard work and commitment to a brand that she is so passionate about: combining nutrition, coaching and functional testing to develop both personalised plans to ambitious individuals, and big corporate group, to allow women to be their best, most rounded selves.
After taking the top spot on the 9th September, Stef has openly shared her journey, mission and hopes for the future of her business with us, taking us right back to the beginning of SD Wellness.
In 2015, two months before giving birth to her daughter, Leila, Stefanie lost her mother to ovarian cancer. Although, now explaining that her mother’s legacy was one thing that maintained her light through this darkness, she also explained that after being tested for having the same gene – the result came back positive.
As a result of this, Stefanie underwent a ‘preventative surgery’ – having both a double mastectomy and an oophorectomy – to ensure that she would not be diagnosed with the disease also. This precaution puts a female into a surgical menopause, which back then was still considered a ‘taboo’ topic.
Now grieving the loss of her mum, the loss of her womanhood, and the difficulties of experiencing menopause all at the same time, Stefanie struggled to see a way out. Experiencing problems with making the most of her life, completing day-to-day tasks efficiently, and being her most present self at home, she explained that after much-needed self-reflection and realisation that this is not just a ‘pill for an ill’ scenario, she actually had a “lightbulb moment”.
Carrying and embodying her mother’s lesson in life to always keep going and literally be the change that she needed, herself, Stefanie went back to college. She was eager to learn all about what the individualised, root causes are for these setbacks – and how one can develop and provide a personalised solution to them through nutrition, coaching, and health.
“I went back to college, where I studied for three years to get my nutritional therapy diploma. After getting a merit in this, I then layered coaching on top of that as I wanted to give women the space and support to come up with solutions themselves. I also found that functional testing on top of this did wonders – which is why we now work with these three modalities to give women the answers they could have only ever dreamt about.”
The team of 4 lovely ladies at SD Wellness work “beyond anything I have ever known” to provide both 1-2-1 meetings with high-performing women, as well as group sessions for big corporates to allow women to step into their absolute best self.
“We are like a team rather than a hierarchy – where we get our sleeves rolled up and bring your best self to work. We all strongly believe in what we’re doing and our mission – allowing all women to be their most productive self at work, and their most present at home – which makes everyone so good at their jobs.”
SD Wellness bridge the gap between generalised information that is commonly pushed out in the media, with a bespoke plan which is sure to meet all the needs of the focus subject.
“The pressure that there is on being healthy, is sometimes not healthy in itself.”
And Stef now incorporates her findings and lessons into her own life also, getting natural sunlight and movement in every morning, followed by a protein-packed berry bowl to anchor herself for the day ahead. She preaches (and practices) that “all this is, is being intentional with my boundaries.
“This hasn’t come easily to me. This is definitely not a linear process. Sometimes I would love another caffeinated coffee at lunchtime, but I have to rain this back, knowing it is something that can really affect my sleep. And when my sleep is affected, I become grouchy, which will then mean the kids will get it and so on…
“It’s kind of like surfing with life. You know what works for you and what your limits are. I have very clear boundaries in place – and this helps me bring my best self to work and at home always.
“I will always meet a woman where she is – that is as unique and different as we all are. I will see what her health priorities and goals are, and we will look at what we can start tweaking and optimising to make changes that will build her resilience from there – and allow her to live her life to the fullest.”
The road to success has not always been smooth-sailing though – I mean is it ever in business ventures?
Stefanie’s younger brother (an alpha-male, money-minded businessman), did place an obstacle in Stef’s vision when addressing his concerns over the financial benefit of her vision early on in starting up.
A pivotal moment that has stuck with Stef from this, and at first leaving her feeling very flat, was the line “I think this is more of a hobby than a job.”
But Stef sees now that he was right – this was never just a job – this is a passion of hers that she has transformed into a worthwhile career. She has established a certified women-only business – which people actually really love!
This incredible journey has all led to her recent success, winning WIZO’s Female Entrepreneur of the Year 2025 award.
Her father, Trevor, put her forward for it, recognising the incredible work that his daughter has done, and all that she had achieved. Stef was shortlisted down to the last seven, where she had to pitch herself in charity, WIZO’s, Kensington offices.
“I literally poured my heart out to the judges, going back to the root cause that we are different. That women’s wellbeing matters. Their energy, clarity and confidence matter. I am proud to work out what is causing a woman to not feel right, to actually listen to her, and to then optimize it for the long run, rather than just ‘putting a plaster on it’, so to speak.”
She took the memories of the empowering women in her life (her mother and grandmother) and the support of her father, to become an award-winning entrepreneur who really believes in the cause of her brand.
“My Dad put me forward because he sees me. He sees me for who I am and sees me for what I am achieving. The power in having a parent who sees you is like nothing on this Earth. Having a parent who believes in you is like rocket fuel.
“I want to take the best, feminine energy from my Mum’s and Grandma’s work ethic, but I also want to take the masculine energy from my brothers who are business-minded, and my dad who sees and appreciates me. It’s like taking all these ingredients – taking the best from all sides – from male and female – and just channeling that to be my absolute best.”
Winning this award really put Stef and her business on the map also – where the response was “phenomenal”. She explained that she is spurred and energised to continue doing more and achieving new things now.
Although she reminds us that her USP (so to say) is that she offers a bespoke plan to individual women – that is based on their personal needs – she feels that there must be a way to bring awareness of these topics to the masses, in a language that they can understand.
Already she has detailed that for readers who are considering what they can implement in their lifestyle to be their best self as a starting point, it is important to have a colourful diet, an effective wind-down routine before sleep, and to look at your habit and cortisol levels instead of focusing on stress. This is just the start though, and over the coming years she hopes to continue working on how best to translate this to the wider audience.
In conclusion to our lovely conversation, Stefanie gave advice to those who are looking to start on their own path to corporate success today: “I always say to speak to someone who has walked your walk. Follow them and learn from them as they are ahead of you in the process, so surrounding yourself with these people will direct you, and better yet – empower you to keep going and achieve more.
“You also need a huge amount of resilience in this game. You will have a lot of self-doubt and a lot of questions and narratives going around in your head, so it is important to flex that muscle. The more you use it, the better you get at it.
“Finally, NEVER lose sight of the why! Why am I doing this? Why is it keeping me going? It will change and shift and alter as you go along – but this will be your driving force.”
For more information on SD Wellness and the amazing work they are doing, click here.
